A good soldering day
Man, I'm all sore and bent from soldering for three and a half hours. I had to call my husband to pick me up because my back felt like it was 100 years old. The torch stations are on regular tables, and as the saying goes, tables are for sitting, not standing. I *could* sit and solder, but I'm more comfortable standing.
I soldered 48 rings today, which is absolutely amazing. I could have done the last bunch, but my eyes were seriously going kooky. Plus I cut my finger and burnt my thumb - when will I learn not to touch hot metal! I'll definitely have to bring my glasses next time. Soldering on sterling silver is harder than brass because, well, the solder is silver as well and there's no contrast. Even when I thought I had soldered successfully, a few minutes in the pickle to eat away the flux showed that I had missed the gap. Only a couple of rings became destined for the dud pile, which also made me happy.
I discovered that it was easier to solder the smaller rings than the larger ones for some reason and I tried to use as little solder as I could. I probably still used too much in places anyway...but maybe with a little filing and emerying they'll be OK. The cool thing about a necklace is it's more about the whole picture than every little link. When I was making the small rings yesterday, I marred the metal trying to make the ends meet, so I decided I would solder them together and hammer them afterwards. I have another 20 grams of sterling silver wire coming, this bunch 0.75mm, so maybe it'll be easier to make into little rings. Anyway, here's a photo. I'll probably have to go into the classroom next weekend as well.
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
purpleponyart) wrote,
tired
